The Euro front-runner in Dublin, FG's Mary Banotti, was in Washington last weekend for the launch by Hillary Clinton and Cherie Booth Blair of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children whose aim is to stop cross-border child abduction and find missing children.
Banotti is the Parliament's mediator on transnationally-abducted children, has been active on many cases and is a board member of the new group. The launch, in the British Embassy in Washington at what they call an A-list reception, came about because Lady Meyer, the wife of the new British ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer, was the first case Banotti dealt with.
Catherine Layelle was a French-British woman married to a German. When the marriage broke up five years ago, her husband took the their two boys to Germany. Desperate to get them back she explored all avenues including the European Parliament. She sought help from the British ambassador in Bonn and, three months later, married him. She is now the toast of Washington but, still without her sons, continues the campaign for herself and others.